In the 30-minute video, titled “How do we face America?,” Zawahiri, who replaced Osama bin Laden at the head of the terrorist group after his assassination in 2011, portrayed the United States as a religious enemy of Muslims.

He said: “Seventeen years have passed since [former US President George W.] Bush launched his crusader war against Muslims, a war linked with the historical enmity directed towards Islam from its dawn to this very day.”

Al-Qieda, which lost the spotlight after the chilling expansion of its top rival, ISIS, in 2014, has been rebuilding ever since.